Palestinian mayor: Israel tries to tempt children with toy-shaped explosives

Palestinian mayor: Israel tries to tempt children with toy-shaped explosives

Caption: Mustafa Fuqaha—mayor of the Palestinian village of Ein Al-Bayda in the Jordan Valley—claims on Palestinian Authority television that the Israel Defense Forces tries to bait Palestinian children into picking up explosives “shaped like pens and toys.” Credit: PMW.

By JNS.org/News Service

January 8, 2013

(JNS.org) A Palestinian Authority (PA) mayor said on television that the Israel Defense Forces tries to bait Palestinian children into picking up explosives “shaped like pens and toys,” according to the latest report from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) uncovering the demonization of the Jewish state.

Recently asked by a PA TV interviewer what types of explosives Israeli soldiers leave behind following training, Mustafa Fuqaha—mayor of the Palestinian village of Ein Al-Bayda in the Jordan Valley—responded: “Some [explosives] are in different shapes. Some are shaped like pens, and some look like toys. Some are in different shapes to tempt children to touch them or pick them up. This is a real danger and real proof that the Israeli army targets children and young ones.”

Roz Rothstein, CEO of the pro-Israel education group StandWithUs, told JNS.org that the PA TV report “deserves exposure as a modern form of blood libel.”

“Unfortunately, ugly stories like this about Jewish people targeting children is not new, and are the cause of hatred and violence against Jews,” she said. “Shame on the Mayor for trying to use old anti-Semitic tactics to create hatred against Jews.”

Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes described the PA TV report as “projection,” which he said is “a shoddy staple of conspiracy theorists.”

“When it devises calumnies about the Israeli government making explosives that appear to be toys, the Palestinian Authority inadvertently reveals its own foul mentality, for this is something it, not the Israelis, would do,” he told JNS.org.

PA TV made a similar claim in 2003, according to PMW, broadcasting that Israel drops “bombs and mines designed as toys” from jet planes to lure Palestinian children into playing with them. Additionally, in 2001, the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida said Israeli soldiers “threw large quantities of poisoned candies” in front of Palestinian schools.